Improvement in gun-stocks



C. R. ALSOP.

Gun-Stock.

' Patented May 22, 1860 N-PETERS, PHOTU-LITHDURAPHER, WASHINGTON, D4 C.

UNrTED STATES PATENT OFFICEQ CHARLES R. ALsoP, or MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR '10 J. w.

ALSOP, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT LN GUN-STOCKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 28,433, dated May 22, 1860.

I0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES R. ALSOP, of

Middletown, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in GunStocks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a side View of a combined pistol and carbine having the stock constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a top view of the same. Fig. 3 is a front view of -one of the connecting portions of the stock. Fig. 4 is a side view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

My invention consists in a certain construction of the stocks of firearms intended to be fired from the shoulder, whereby a firmer grasp is obtained for the right hand in firing, and the piece is enabled to be held more steadily against the shoulder, and with the elbow depressed,so as to be more out of the reach of an enemy s fire than with the ordinary construction, and whereby provision is made for constructing the stock in two parts,which may be disconnected for more convenient carriage, and for the conversion of a piece from a gun into a pistol, and vice versa.

My invention also consists inacertain mode ofattachingand securing together the two parts of the stock when it is made in two parts.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, 1' will proceed to de scribe its construction and operation.

In the example of my invention represented in the drawings the stock is madein two parts,

which may be connected or disconnected,that' the piece may be used as a carbine orpistolat pleasure; but the same form of stock that is produced by the connection of the two parts may be adopted without any provision for disconnection for rifles, fowling-pieces, muskets, or carbines.

I will first describe the form of the stock as a whole which constitutes my invention, and then describe its construction in two parts to effect the change from a gun to a pistol, and

vice versa.,

The rear portion or butt, A, of thestock is of the same form as the rear portion of an ordinary gun-stock; but at about the point where a gun-stock is ordinarily grasped by the right hand in firing there is an opening, B, large enough for the thumb of the right hand to pass through and for the reception of the ball of the said thumb, the portion 0 of the stock immediately in rear of the said opening being made in the form of a bow, as shown in Fig. 1, and the portion D immediately in front of it being nearly perpendicular to the line of the barrel, and of such form as to be capable of being grasped by the hand,with the thumb through the said opening.

In constructing a stock of this form it will be more convenient to make the bow O of metal; but the butt A and the part D may be made of wood. The bow C may be made with a tenon, C, at its rear, as represented in Figs. 2 and 4, to fit a mortise in the butt A, and the said tenon may be secured by screws a a,pass ing through it and the butt A, as represented in Fig. 1, and tenons may be also provided on the front extremities of the bow O, to fit mortises in the part D, and the said tenons may be secured permanently in their respective mortises by transverse screws; or any other per- 1 manent attachment of the bow to the butt A and the part D may be adopted.

In constructing the stock with the butt or rear portion movable for the convenience of carriage or for the conversion of the gun into a pistol, I propose to connect the bow 0 permanently with the butt by a tenon, O, and screws to a, as hereinabove described,and representedin the drawings, and to construct the bow with a short round tenon, b, to fit a mortise in the upper part of D, and with atongue, c, of dovetail form in its transverse section,to fit a dovetail groove in the bottom of the part D, and to provide in the part D asmallspringbolt, E, to slip into ahole, (Z, in the said tongue 0. Bypushing up the bolt E by its projecting knob e to liberate the said tongue 0, the how 0, with thebutt attached, may be disconnected from the part D, which then resembles a pistol-stock, and by replacing the bow in the part D the piece is again convertedinto a gun.

hat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The construction of the stock of a firearm intended to be fired from the shoulder with an opening, 13, for the thumb to pass through and for the reception of theball of the thumb, and with the portion D in front of the said opening so nearly perpendicular to the barrel as to allow it to be grasped by the hand, with the thumb through the said opening, substantially as herein described, and represented in Fig. 1 of the drawings, whether the butt A is or is not capable of disconnection.

CHAS. R. ALSOP.

\Vitnesses:

B. GIRoUX, M. M. LIVINGSTON. 

